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Welcome to CycloneFanatic.com. I notice you haven't taken the time to register yet, now is as good of time as any:)

For those that are against the Pollard extension...

... if you don't want Pollard as the AD... you HAVE to explain what you would do after getting rid of him?

Who would you go and hire to replace him that would be so much better... and would want to be the AD of ISU?

Explain what you would want this new AD to do that JP hasn't done, or what your new AD would have done differently than JP has done? And you can't just say... "win more football and basketball games" either... that's not specific enough.

Because IMO.... Geoffrey just pulled off a steal. He got Pollard to sign an extension, but for no increase in pay.... when in reality there is nobody out there that could come in here for the same pay rate and do half as good a job IMO.

Pollard has done what has been needed to make the ISU athletic dept succesful IMO. He's made the tough decisions (getting rid of DMac) that HAD to be made. It's not his fault that Auburn swooped in and grabbed Chizik away from us before he had even sniffed any kind of success or even progress yet. It's not his fault that GMac has suffered the worst kind of bad luck in players like Wesley Johnson just leaving unannounced without any kind of explanation whatsoever.

I've been saying for awhile now that Iowa State needs stability right now more than anything else. We've switched football, MBB, and wrestling head coaches all twice now in just the last several years. DMac finally achieved some success after he not only stuck with it for awhile, but he also wasn't shoved out the door after a few bad seasons. Go back and look at KF's first 2-3 years at Iowa too. Look at Fennelly as well. It takes some years, and some patience on everyone's part to see the success we all want.

Jamie Pollard has laid the groundwork and is continually upgrading the facilities at ISU for the eventual success we will all get to enjoy in the years ahead. As JP has often said himself... our football and MBB attendance is remarkable considering the lack of success we've seen over the past few years. Our fans our incredible.... and when our football team and MBB teams achieve the success that I know they will, we will HAVE to bowl in the south endzone just to accomodate all the season ticket requests there will be, and we will HAVE to go back to a lottery system in basketball so there won't be riots in the streets for tickets.

We MUST have stability folks! If we get rid of JP right now... who's to say another AD will walk through the door and he/she will want to hire their "own" head coaches. So Paul Rhoads, GMac, Jackson, Fennelly, and others will all be gone in the next couple years.... and then what?

We cannot constantly be changing AD's, head coaches, and even uniforms for that matter, and ever achieve the success we all want to see. Nobody hardly knows who ISU even is anymore? Nobody knows who are head coaches are going to be year in and year out... and nobody knows what our teams will even be wearing from one year to the next? I joked to my wife this year that I need to go to the Cyclone tailgate tour every year just to meet all the new head coaches every year.

Of course JP has to take some of the blame for this. Afterall, he's the one that has made all these changes, including the uniforms, but I seriously believe that he has the people in place now that he needs to get this done. I think Rhoads, GMac, Fennelly, Jackson, etc are not only all GREAT, GREAT people, but I honestly believe they love Iowa State University and want to be here for a long time to turn this thing around. Everything is in place right now... and the facilities are improving by the day (just drive by Jack Trice or the new basketball practice facility).

This can happen and it WILL happen. I have to believe that, and I don't know how all Cyclones everywhere don't want to believe that. But it won't happen by getting rid of Jamie Pollard. That is the last thing this athletic department needs right now. And for all of you that truly believe it is.... then explain to me who you would hire and what he/she would do differently?

One more thing.... after saying all this about not changing anything... we do still have to change our helmets to yellow as I've shown in my signature pic below. Then we won't be confused with those losers from USC!

Re: For those that are against the Pollard extension...

I agree that the facilities are coming along nicely. Its disturbing, however, that two coaches he hired bolted for the first chance to get out of dodge. I realize they both left for great opportunities but the way they left was devastating to any progress that Pollard may have been making with facility upgrades and what not.

Re: For those that are against the Pollard extension...

Originally Posted by arganbright2

I agree that the facilities are coming along nicely. Its disturbing, however, that two coaches he hired bolted for the first chance to get out of dodge. I realize they both left for great opportunities but the way they left was devastating to any progress that Pollard may have been making with facility upgrades and what not.

Pollard's head coaches left for better opportunities at more high profile athletic schools for better money. That says something about them.

The ones he got rid of... DMac and WM... went where? DMac went to be an assistant defensive coach under Wally Burnham at South Florida... and WM is still in Ames, correct? Not as if anyone was knocking down their doors to hire them.

So the coaches he got rid of... nobody really wanted. And the ones he hired... were sought after. I still don't know why Auburn wanted Chizik, but they did, which says something that JP got him to Ames.

Re: For those that are against the Pollard extension...

Too tired to read your whole post but I don't think many people want to "get rid" of JP. It's more about deserving the extension. At least that's where I stand.

In favor of Pollard, yes. In favor of the extension, not really, but not going to lose sleep over it.

This ... except I'm definately not in favor of the extension NOW. Everyone claims we're going to get 4-6 wins in football and have a smash-bang gilstrap-heavy basketball season ... if that happens I'm all in to extending him next year ... or the next, we gots plenty of time. I guess now we have more ...

Re: For those that are against the Pollard extension...

I am not against JP, I just don't understand the point of giving an AD an extension while the jury for the most part is still out on him. Doesn't seem to makes sense to give him an extension without a raise when he still has what 3 years left on this deal.

Re: For those that are against the Pollard extension...

It was a dark time at Iowa State without an Athletic Director when Bruce VanDevelde left. The sky wasn’t falling yet, but we needed someone with a vision to come into our lives and save the day world. We got someone who had a vision, who wanted to bring ISU to the middle of the Big XII. That man savior was Jamie Pollard. We saw three coaches get shown the door and when Gene Chizik was announced as head coach of the football program, everyone promptly lost all control of their bladders and bowels. Some say this was god smiling down upon Iowa State for once. I for one saw a gigantic mess of excrement everywhere, but that’s a story for another day. Everyone I talked to I was in agreement: “He’s going to leave the first time we win 8 games, but we’ll have won 8 games!”

For his next miracle, Saint Pollard kicked Wayne Morgan in ***. Then he fired him and went out and got rising coach from UNI, Greg McDermott. I was euphoric. “Could it be? Is god smiling down on me yet again? So soon?” I was beside myself with excitement. Yet again, wonders had been worked for us to take a step up in athletics.

The only other thing left to do was to fix our underachieving wrestling program and whip that into shape. Hark! I heard angels singing that day Bobby Douglas stepped aside for Cael Sanderson to take the reins. This wasn’t nearly a miracle, but it was important. Immediately the wrestling program showed a pulse as Cael led the campaign to a trio of conference titles, and finishing in the top five at the NCAA tournament three years in a row.

A choir of angels came down from the heavens the day the storied “thermometer” showed up at cyclones.com. I couldn’t believe it; a thermometer to test the temperature of the fanbase as we were gearing up for our first season under Gene Chizik. Pure genius. Surely no mortal could have come up with such a clever scheme. This is when I was starting to get worried; because, as we all know, god hates us. “There must be some catch for all of this.”

Then we promptly lost all four of our non-conference games, and quite a few conference games. In January of 2008 there came a rapping, a tapping on the CycloneFanatic message board door. When the door was answered, it was none other than MontyBurns, who I believe is what is leading us down this path of suckiness.
Threads like:

“GC SUCKS!”

“JP SCREWED US!”

“Where’s the thermometer, Mr. Pollard?”
started showing up all over the place. “Why are people so angry already?” Then, June of 2008 was here. Every day I awoke, looking at cyclonefanatic to see if anything had happened in the 8 hours since I had last looked at it. “Not really” I would mutter as I saw general excitement for a new and improved football team.

Then the season started. Cries after wins, cries after losses, cries after they ran out of hot dogs at the concession stands appeared on my favorite message board, and I kept thinking that maybe we should change the name to “The Whiners Club.”

So you see, it isn’t Jamie Pollard that is the problem. It is the fact that we started losing everything the minute we all started whining. So please, I beg of you all to see the error of your ways. Please, if you must whine, do it in white text. It’s hard to see, so I think that should at least help us to get back on our feet in these sports. That’s the compromise that I’m willing to make so that you can voice your opinion. But please, leave poor Saint Pollard out of this (I’m on the campaign trail trying to get him anointed once he dies) he has done nothing wrong. It is the constant whining that is creating the problem.

Re: For those that are against the Pollard extension...

Originally Posted by LeBron

You left out that he won a national championship at Florida.

That was after he went to be an assistant to defensive coordinator Wally Burnham at South Florida.

If you look at coaches like stocks... it's like you put the ISU head coach on the trading block and all you got offered was the assistant defensive coordinator at South Florida in return. So... the head coach that JP got rid of was taking instructions from the guy that is now our defensive coordinator. I loved DMac, don't get me wrong, but it was time for him to go at the time. He couldn't even find another head coaching job in Div IA.

And Wayne Morgan.... give me a break. I'm not sure he even could get an interview anywhere... much less a coaching job. He nearly had ISU on NCAA probation. What would you all think of JP if he let him do that to our school?

And still.... nobody has yet to give me one name that they would hire right now if they were Geoffrey? It sure is easy to make nasty comments about JP when you don't actually have to come up with a better plan yourself, isn't it? Let me know when you have your new AD name ready, and then tell me what he/she would do better than JP? I'll be waiting....

Re: For those that are against the Pollard extension...

Originally Posted by Gordyo5

I am not against JP, I just don't understand the point of giving an AD an extension while the jury for the most part is still out on him. Doesn't seem to makes sense to give him an extension without a raise when he still has what 3 years left on this deal.

For stability. Plain and simple. Right now we need to have our AD inked to more than just a 2-3 year deal. If you have only 2 years left on your contract as an AD... you have to start looking "ahead" to see what else is possibly out there for you? We don't need JP concentrating on his next gig right now. We need him concentrating on ISU... and only ISU.

And we got him signed... without even increasing his salary... which is actually quite a decrease in reality when you factor in inflation, etc. It was a smart and necessary move by Geoffrey... period. It's a win-win for both sides IMO.

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